Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) appeared to have almost locked up the win in the Tour Down Under but today he was unseated by his veteran compatriot Cadel Evans (BMC) who dropped him on the Corkscrew climb and soloed away to the finish. Now trailing new leader Evans by 12 seconds, Gerrans admits that the overall win will now be difficult to take but he will throw everything he has at Evans to try to take back the ochre leader's jersey before Sunday's finish in Adelaide.

After winning the Australian National Championships against main rival Cadel Evans and Richie Porte, Simon Gerrans was the odds-on favourite to win the Tour Down Under when the race started on Tuesday. He duly won stage 1 when he beat Andre Greipel in a sprint and after his 2nd place on stage 2, it was a common assessment that the Orica-GreenEDGE would be very hard to beat.

When Cyclingnews asked Orica-GreenEDGE sports director about rumours of a potential alliance between Porte and Evans, he claimed that no one was going to drop Gerrans. However, Evans a different plans and when the race hit its hardest climb, the Corkscrew Road, he left the race leader in his wake.

Gerrans crested the summit with Porte and the duo tried to work together to reel in Evans on the descent. Instead of gaining time, however, they saw the advantage grow and they were finally picked up by an 11-rider chase group. In the end, Gerrans even missed out on bonus seconds when he could only manage 5th on the stage and now finds himself in 2nd on GC, 12 seconds behind Evans.

Corkscrew is by far the steepest climb in the race and suits the pure climbers better than any of the other ascents of the race. Gerrans always knew that today would be his hardest challenge.

"The Corkscrew is one of the toughest climbs, especially when it comes at such a crucial part of the stage," he said. "Everyone is going 100 percent and that was their opportunity to make their mark on the race.

"Cadel and Richie jumped on the steep section," he added. "I sort of bided my time, and then accelerated over toward them. I got to Richie, but Cadel slipped away. Then he managed to pull away on the downhill. The difficult part of that downhill, is that you only need five seconds, and you're out of sight. I didn't spot him again until we got near the bottom."

Gerrans and Porte had tried to work together to catch Evans.

"We definitely said 'come on let's work together' and try to catch him on the downhill but then as soon as I saw that group coming from behind us I knew Daryl Impey would be right there and a few other guys to hopefully work together to get Cadel back," he later told Cyclingnews. "I sort of waited for those guys hoping for a little bit of collaboration to bring back Cadel but that point I think everyone was on their limits and I don't think we took too much more time out of him after that."

Despite his time loss, Gerrans refuses to give up.

"It won't be easy to get back [the time], but it's not impossible," said Gerrans who remains the leader of the points competition. "It's not going to be easy for Cadel. We're going to throw everything at him, that's for sure.

" I’m disappointed to lose the ochre jersey but it’s not over."

Sports director Matt White said that the team did what they had to do to defend Gerrans' lead.

“Everything went as planned today, except for the last part of the climb,” he said. “The guys controlled the race well. We knew it would be a battle on the Corkscrew- it is the hardest climb of the Tour. Nothing went wrong for us. Gerro was super today; he just wasn’t good enough to match Cadel over the top.” 

After taking the Ochre leader’s jersey on stage one of this year’s Santos Tour Down Under, the team had hoped to have the manpower to hang on to the overall for the duration of the week. Despite Gerrans conceding 12 seconds to Evans today, White remains optimistic about their general classification chances.

 “We obviously would have liked to have kept the jersey,” he said. “We’ve got a little bit of work to do now to get those 12 seconds back, but we’ve also got a couple more stages left to do it and there are plenty of time bonuses available out on the road and in the finishes. Gerro is in super form and the guys are supporting him really well, so it’s not over yet.”

The team will now focus their attention on tomorrow’s flat but unpredictable stage into Victor Harbor, and target a repeat win on Saturday’s Queen stage in Willunga. Gerrans won last year on the same circuit around the wineries of McLaren Vale, and the multiple ascents of the punchy Willunga Hill makes this an ideal stage for the in-form Victorian.

“If we want to win the Tour we have to win on Willunga,” White added. “There’s no other option, so that’s a big goal for us. We’ll just take it day by day. Tomorrow is one for the sprinters, but there will be a few surprises between now and the weekend. We’re expecting this one to go down to the wire”